This is Stephen Colquhoun, a 23 years old, recently unemployed man from Glasgow. He’s also the latest Biffer poster boy, having left the KFC in Glasgow’s Renfrew Street amid a row about food safety.

According to Britain First this was a row about patriotism and remembrance. They’d have you believe that he was sacked because he revered the memory of this country’s war dead, refusing to remove his Royal British Legion poppy as demanded by his manager.

The basics of the story are, of course, correct. Colquhoun did indeed fail to remove his poppy and he did end up leaving the KFC restaurant a little earlier than he’d planned as a result. But it had nothing to do with patriotism or remembrance and everything to do with KFC’s statutory requirement to maintain food safety. It’s ludicrous to propose that KFC object to the poppy when they had a poppy box taking pride of place within the premises. That’s where Colquhoun bought it!

The reality is that any loosely pinned symbol, especially one fastened with a metal pin would be banned during food preparation. We just have to consider the implications of a metal pin becoming ‘lost’ in a customer’s meal and the potentially lethal injuries it could cause to understand why.

It’s also worth noting that Colquhoun had already resigned and was working out his notice. He said…

“I had handed in my notice to KFC and was only due to work for another couple of weeks but I could have done with the cash from my last few shifts.”

Here’s what the Scottish daily, The Daily Record had to say about the affair…